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Mandarin M3® - Circulation

Facilitate Your Front-Desk Operations with Our Powerful Yet Easy-to-Use Circulation Module

M3 allows you to view patron, item and transaction information in a three pane split screen visible during loan, return, renewal, or reserve activities. Customize the data in each pane to optimize your workflow, and even display patron photos as well as item images such as book jackets.

M3 Circulations's efficient design puts frequent circulation activities just a few clicks away. One-click functionality for loans, returns, reserves, renewals, status review, bookings, and fine processing means shorter lines and fewer personnel at the front desk. Enable Self Check or Self Return, and expand your patron offerings without impact on library staff.

Circulation Features

  • Fully customizable screens
  • Multilingual interface (English, Spanish, French)
  • Ability to link images to patrons and items
  • Standard or customized patron and item messages
  • Immediate update and display of item and patron status
  • Self-service check-in/check-out options
  • Backdating check-in and override capabilities available to authorized users
  • Flexible calendar interface, including fixed and repeated closed days for holidays
  • Fast multiple-item batch return
  • On-the-fly transaction processing
  • In-house circulation to track usage within the library
  • Hourly loan capability
  • Special reserve collection management
  • Library transaction reports
  • Circulation Desk receipt printing for patrons
  • Quick return functionality via a single barcode scan
  • Sound/voice alert options
  • OPAC and Cataloging search access from Circulation
  • Ability to assign items to collections with specific due date parameters with Group Editor
  • Ability to set patron and staff circulation rights and authorization levels with Group Editor

Textbook Management

Circulation can be used to store and manage textbook collections. Textbook data such as title, author, and publication can be entered as a bibliographic record and linked to any number of copies. Barcodes can be attached to each copy and scanned when textbooks are loaned or returned by students or staff. You can assign loan periods by semester, day, week, month, year, or hour. A special reserve group can be created for the collection, available for loan to group members only. You can assign to this group desired loan lengths and, if needed, an expiration date, at which point textbooks and other materials return to the regular collection.

Inventory provides another method for tracking missing textbooks kept in storage or in off-site collections such as classrooms. In addition, reports can be run based on homeroom, student, teacher, subject, and so on. and lists of items not returned can be produced for teaching staff.

Reports

  • Frequently used reports and tracking features integrated into the Circulation module, directly available to librarians from the same screen as other circulation tasks
  • Ability to run transaction for the entire library, by patron or by item
  • Ability to print receipts and statistics for Today's Transactions, Today's Loans, and Today's Returns
  • An extensive number of circulation reports preloaded in the ReportTool module, accessing current M3 Circulation transaction data when run

Tracking

  • Ability to track in-house usage statistics with the In-House Circulation function
  • Ability to quickly and easily upload transactions from portable scanners directly into circulation for off-site (such as bookmobile) and emergency backup support

Here's What's New in Version 1.7.01

( Current Service and Update Agreement Subscribers Only.  Includes Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3 )

Mandarin is pleased to announce the release of Mandarin M3 Core version 1.7.01. This release introduces new features in the M3 Core and optional modules.

Cataloging

  • Picture records and related image files are now removed when the corresponding bibliographic or patron records are purged.
  • Cataloging now includes a Bookbag. Records can be added to a bookbag and saved for future editing.
Circulation
  • Users in Self-check/return mode can no longer enable the menu by selecting the language button.
  • In the Select Patron dialog (when a duplicate barcode is detected), diacritical characters now display correctly.
  • Sorting has been improved in Library Transactions mode.
  • A scriptable interface is now built into Circulation that allows for more complex barcode processing
  • Circulation now supports the copy-specific reserve. This is enabled by a new Group Editor option that sets the type of reserve that is used for all items in that group.
  • In Transit handling has been enhanced for scoped library systems. In Transit status can be set by using the new “Send to Library…” command.
Find/Replace
  • When the result set is selected using Select All, then a few records are deselected, Find/Replace now continues processing on all records that remain selected.
Inventory
  • Inventory failure with multiple threads on multi-core (duo core) CPUs fixed.
  • Inventory failure when a barcode file that has been defined in the session is missing - is now fixed.
Record Editor
  • Two-digit country codes in 008 are no longer replaced by ‘xx’ when the field is viewed in the Fixed Field editor.
ReportTool
  • Improved stability.
  • Improved Memory Management.
  • Numerous system crash scenarios have been resolved.
  • Improved creation of temporary work files on network drives.
  • Addressed issues in 2-pass formula field processing.
  • Addressed issues in “Formula referencing another Formula” calculations.
  • Improved output when printing a report to HTML.
  • Improved output when printing a report to RTF.
  • There is now an Undo/Redo feature.
  • SubDetail with Frames: Multiple report objects, such as database fields, can now be manipulated as if they were a single object.
  • Conditional color Formatting: Font attributes, such as color, can now be changed based on the contents of a database or formula field.
  • Added ability email a report in HTML format.

Features Included in Free Version 1.6

( Does Not Include Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3 )

This release introduces new features in the M3 Core modules as well as several innovative optional modules, including Syndetic Solutions, MARC Magician integrated with M3 Cataloging, and M3 Pocket Module.

New M3 Core module features are outlined below.

Cataloging
  • Ability to import pictures and to update patron and item records with these pictures.
  • Ability to create multiple holdings for a bibliographic record at one time.
  • When sorting, non-filing characters ("the", "a", and so on) are now ignored.
  • When creating a new holding for an existing bibliographic record, the prefix (852#k) is now copied into the new holding record.
  • Ability to tag a block of records in the main Cataloging window by selecting the first record and pressing SHIFT while selecting the last record; this tags all records in between.
  • The removal of empty fields after saving a record is now optional.
Windows® OPAC
  • Ability to view book cover images.
  • Ability to link to Syndetics Solutions, which allows patrons to view summaries, reviews, and other content data for items in your collection. It also provides cover images for thousands of items. This is available on a subscription basis for an additional charge.
  • Ability to customize your library name on the main window.br />
  • Ability to save and print holdings data from the Search Results and Bookbag windows.
  • Ability to view holdings information in the Bookbag Details window.
  • In libraries with union databases, local holdings are indicated by a star-shaped Availability and Tagging check box.
Circulation
  • New shortcut toolbar on the main window contains buttons for commonly- used functions. This might ship off by default.
  • Ability to renew all or return all transactions in the Transactions pane is available from a transaction menu.
  • Ability to apply refunds or enter additional fines in the Payment window.
  • Ability to search for a patron or item from the main window by typing keywords in the Barcode box.
  • The display of override messages in Self-Check mode is now optional. If they are disabled, the only message that will display is if the item is non- circulating.
  • Ability to disable the History tab in the Circulation Options dialog box.
  • Ability to enable a message to display when an item is being placed on hold instead of reserve.
  • A warning message displays when an item that is assigned to a special reserve group is returned.
  • If a scanned barcode is invalid, three distinct beeps will sound.
  • When an item is recorded as lost, the fine assigned will be the item price indicated in field 852#9. If no price exists, the fine will be the maximum fine as set in Group Editor.
Miscellaneous
  • The Search dialog box used in Cataloging, Circulation, and Group Editor is now able to handle special characters, such as ampersands (&).
  • Ability to change the font size and type in the record editor (visible in Cataloging and Circulation) by modifying the Default Grid Font entry in the ActiveMarcEdit.ini file. The default font setting is 8 pt MS Sans Serif.
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